Devos for Feb. 24th (By HKM)

Today’s Scripture: Numbers 14

Application:

Numbers 14:18

“The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”

I underlined the parts of this verse that stood out to me the most. These are very encouraging words for when someone feels down in the dumps. I feel like this week has been full of unpredictable obstacles for my life, some situations specifically with people doing things that affect my life that I disagree with. I feel as though I can rest assured that not only is the Lord abounding in love that will wash away the hurt, but he doesn’t let the guilty go unpunished so I don’t need to worry so much about the sins done to me because the Lord will take care of it.

Prayer:

Lord thank you for all that you do for me in my life. I pray that your love would fill the void in my heart that can’t be filled by anybody else or anything. Help me to see the good in people especially in circumstances where I feel as though I can only see the bad. Thank you for your grace, mercy and willingness to forgive my sins. I love you Lord and pray all of this in Jesus name Amen.

Devos for Feb. 22nd (By Joy Berg)

Ps. 27:13-14
I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord, be strong and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord!

How many times in our lives have we been at the point of despair?  When circumstances around us look overwhelming and our life seems to be hanging by a thread? The longer that we live on this planet the more we see that "stuff" is going to come our way. It may be circumstances that we face because of our own poor choices and our fleshly nature, attacks from the enemy, or just the results of living in this sin cursed world. Whatever the cause, as believers, we have life line when despair comes over our lives. Heaven is not just for your future, it is for today.  As children of God we have access to heaven here and now. There have been many times in my life that if I would not have been able to see the goodness of God and see Him move in the circumstances in my life, I would have despaired. The key is in verse 14, " Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord." God will show up for His kids! Every time. There is not one situation in your life that He is not deeply concerned about and working in! We have to trust His goodness and wait for Him. Look for His hand at work even in the worst of circumstances. HE is there and His promise is to never leave us or forsake us.  Praise God!

Devos for Feb 17th (By Pastor Brandon)

“Calling my Name in the Wilderness”

Numbers 1, 2 and Acts 23-28

Numbers 1:1: “Now the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness…”
Number 1:5: “These are the names of the men who shall stand with you…”
Acts 23:11: “But the following night the Lord stood by him and said, ‘Be of good cheer, Paul; for as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome’”

God speaks to us in or ‘wilderness’. Moses was wandering around the wilderness with over a million rebellious, complaining, stubborn people. I’m sure Moses could have thought of 100 other places he would rather be than with those people; especially with them in the wilderness. Paul was in the wilderness of incarceration as an innocent man. Like Moses, I’m sure Paul could have drummed up a list of “100 other places I’d rather be than in jail, falsely accused, with angry mobs trying to tear me apart.”

God called Moses by name, He called Aaron by name and in the devotional reading today he called those who would stand with Moses and Aaron in leadership and war… all by name. God had the Israelites take a census of the people. They did this by calling out which family they belonged to and listed the names in their lineage. Why? So they could take courage in numbers or a strong army? No, it was about answering the question “Who are God’s People”. Especially those warriors who would stand with Moses. It was about identity. What about Paul? God called him by name in Acts 9. Why? It was about Identity.

Maybe our ‘wilderness’ is the struggle with an addiction, a bad relationship with parents, a mistake with my boyfriend/girlfriend, or persecution for my belief in Christ. Maybe depression, cutting, or deep hurt caused by a friend. It’s in these times we can feel distant from God, like maybe He has left, doesn’t care or has better things to do.

But its precisely in the ‘wilderness’ we need to remember who we belong to, and that Jesus desires to call us by name, speak to us and provide direction that will lead us out of the wilderness we’re in.

Devos for Feb. 15th (By Jenny)

Scripture: Psalm 25

Observation/Application:

I feel like I can probably write a book on all of the things I can pull from this that God is speaking to me just in this one chapter. I LOVE how the Word is the LIVING Word of God! I love that it speaks to us still today and that God can use it to speak to me, ever so gently about one thing, while at the same time using the exact chapter to speak to you about something completely different.

Verses 14-15  Where does true deliverance come from? Only from God. Deliverance is found in God and through maintaining our focus on him. Any other roads to deliverance are false and ultimately prove themselves to be a snare, creating strongholds in our lives. I'm reminded of one time when Pastor Ben and I were hanging out in one of our favorite places to go together. Its a set of railroad tracks that goes through town and if you walk down them you come to a bridge that the tracks go over. Now this bridge is an old wooden bridge above a small creek and I am terrible afraid of heights and bridges and water but somehow Pastor Ben got me out on that bridge. He of course had no problem running back and forth, but I on the other hand, was so scared that I could barely move. I thought for sure I would fall between the slots in the boards or that a big gust of wind would come and make me fall off the edge. I know how ridiculous this sounds, but I was so scared and focused on everything that was below me that I couldn't do anything to take my mind off of all of the what ifs. It wasn't until Pastor Ben came over and had me look straight out that I was able to make it across the bridge. I couldn't look down and away from my goal and destination because I would again get distracted and all of the fear would come rushing back.  Just like that day for me, our eyes must be on the Lord. Only by looking to him will he lead us to safety. If we have our focus on Him, not on our situations, then He will be able to guide us across any bridge we come to.

Prayer:
Jesus, Thank you for your steadfast love and guidance in our lives. I pray that you will give us the courage and strength to put our hope and trust in you. Help us to keep our eyes focused on you because we know that only through you are we saved and set free. We love you, Lord. Amen.

Devos for Feb. 10th (By Pastor Ryan)

"Therefore since we are God's offspring we should not think that the diving being is like gold or silver or stone - an image made by man's skill."
Acts 17:29

In times past, men worshipped gods they built from materials. While today we may look at the idea of worshipping something we built as lunacy, in truth, we see it all the time. Rather than building our gods from silver, marble, or gold, we prefer gods that we build inside of our heads.

Some worship gods like money or power and spend their lives avoiding their own internal hell of having neither. Inside of our heads we make plans to reach these gods and we consider how happy we will be when these gods are with us. Have you ever said the phrase - "I will be so happy when ..."?
That phrase is an idol identifier. When I have money, or sex, or control over my life that my parents can't take back - then I'll be happy. Because the life that follows inevitably is built around reaching that goal.

Idols aren't necessarily evil things as much as they are things that our hearts choose to place on higher priority than Jesus. The one we love most is truly our god. The one we serve and arrange our life towards reaching - that is our god.

How do we avoid idolatry? The answer isn't necessarily swear off things that can become idols. For some idols can be food, fun, clothing, or other things that are actually good and God made to be good. If you want to flee from idolatry the real answer is to get more Jesus. Spend more time with Him. Know him more. Read your Bible. Pray. Listen to Him. When Jesus is number one in your life the rest of your interests land in the appropriate place - below him.

Prayer
Father, have all of me. Every last bit. Be first in my life and first in the lives of those reading. I ask for your help, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Devos for Feb. 8th (By Jordan W.)

Leviticus 9:23-24

What happens when God hurls a fireball into the middle of your church service?  Ask Moses, Aaron and the rest of the Israelites on the day that God showed up and they could tell you.  If you were to wade through the cowering masses as smoke rises from the alter and choose someone, anyone, they would all tell you the same thing. 

"We gathered to sacrifice to God.  This wasn't the first time that we had done this, so I guess we were not expecting anything different.  Sure Moses told us that we would see the presence of God today, but nobody expected this!"

So, what were they expecting?

Ever since God sprung the Israelites out of Egypt, they labored under a heavy burden of sin.  God had repeatedly said that they were an “ungrateful, stiff necked people” and on this day in the book of Leviticus, it was time for the people to be made clean.  They gathered in front of the tabernacle and sacrificed to God.  This was an atonement that would be an ancient foreshadowing of Christ dying on a cross for our sin.  Finally, stubborn Israel stood clean before their God.  And, once they were clean, they cleared the way for God to show up with His consuming fire.  Repentance always clears the way for God to show up.  Just ask John the Baptist about that (but do that a different time, we are still dealing with the Israelites).

So, I ask again, “what were they expecting?”  Probably to just make atonement, feel good about themselves and go back home.  Unfortunately, we often come to our church services expecting the same thing.  We come to church to be made clean, it makes us feel good, and then we split.  But how often do we come to church expecting God to show up?  Israel sure didn’t, they were terrified when the presence of God came.  Now, I am not suggesting to you that if God comes and starts chucking fireballs in church tomorrow that I am going to play it cool and tell you “I told you so”.  That’s not what I am saying, what I am saying is that I WANT him to show up!  And, I wonder what would happen if each of us came expecting the same thing, to be made clean and see God’s presence.  Maybe we would walk out of church better than we came in.  Maybe we would walk out feeling pure and holy.  Or maybe, just maybe we would walk out completely on fire.

Prayer
God, do not allow us to enter your presence without an expectation of being touched by you.

Devos for Feb. 3rd (by HMK)

Scripture Reference: Acts 10:15

“The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

Application:

I must admit at first I was kind of having a hard time really getting anything from today’s reading, but when I read over this verse I went back and re-read it a couple times and really felt the Lord speak to my heart about my life. Pastor Ben talked about humility last night at youth group and how many view it as saying “I am not worthy of God’s love or Grace” but that isn’t the correct definition of the humility God wants us to have. I think this scripture is very applicable to the concept of humility; we are worthy of God’s love and grace and mercy only because he has made us clean. We need to accept his love and all it entails and not claim that we are unclean or not worthy. This can apply to how we view other people’s lives as well, only God can pass judgment and when we see something that may seem “unclean” the Lord may know differently and have his hand on that person’s life. I hope this all makes sense, if not feel free to text Pastor Ben for verification : )

Prayer:

Lord I pray that I may know the true meaning of humility, and that I can be humble when receiving your gifts and blessings. Thank you for all that you do for me, I know that I would be nothing without a relationship with you. Fill me up with your love so that I can speak your name and show your love to people around me. This I pray in Jesus name Amen.

Devos for Feb. 1st (Jenny's Post)

Scritpure:

Exodus 32, Acts 8:1-25

Obsevation/Application:

In Acts 8, we come across a guy named Simon, who was a magician. He practiced magic in the streets of Samaria and amazed all the people that watched him. Scripture says that he said himself that he was somebody great. He loved being the center of attention and having everybody amazed at his “powers”.

Phillip, a disciple of Jesus, went to the city of Samaria proclaiming the news of Christ and as he was traveling through the city, Simon, along with many other people, heard the Good News and believed and was baptized. The story goes on to say that a couple more apostles were sent to the city to pray for the people that just got saved so that they could receive the Holy Spirit. Now here’s where the story gets interesting. Simon saw what was happening and wanted to take part in it. He saw that people were getting the power of the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands, and he wanted to be able to have that same power to lay hands on people so that they can receive the Holy Spirit. He wanted this though for the wrong reason. He wanted it just for the “power” that it gave him, not for what it did for other people or for what having the Holy Spirit actually meant. Basically, Simon thought that it made a really cool trick and he wanted to learn how to do it. He even offered the apostles money so that he could be able to do it.

This story of Simon made me question how often I/we chase after the signs and miracles rather than the One that holds the power. Are we so busy looking for how we can appear to be super-spiritual instead of focusing on how we can truly get closer to God. The Bible tells us that signs and wonders will follow those who believe, so it’s all part of the package deal of following Christ, but first we have to make our hearts right and have pure intentions in what we are striving for. We can’t want to be able to do signs and miracles so that we look really cool, we have to want it so that, through the signs, God is glorified.

Prayer:  

Jesus, You are so great! It’s truly amazing to me that you still choose to use people to show your power and goodness. You tell us to desire certain gifts and so I pray that as we do, that are hearts stay pure and our intentions are only what they should be. Let us focus on and follow only after you and not be caught up in how we think it makes us look to other people. Lord, you are good. Thank you for your Word that it is alive today. Amen.